Dan Carter is net captain and will ensure a decent bat and bowl for all concerned

Please bring a £Fiver to cover the cost of the net

]]>BLACKHEATH CC KCL HANDBOOK REPORT 2015 SEASONhttp://www.blackheathcc.com/2016/01/10/blackheath-cc-kcl-handbook-report-2015-season/
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 20:18:34 +0000http://www.blackheathcc.com/?p=2462015 was another memorable season at the Rectory Field, with Blackheath becoming National Club Champions for the second time.

In League Cricket the Club had a moderate year by its own standards, despite remaining the only Club with 4 teams in the KCL structure.

An extremely young 4th XI found the 2nd XI Division 2 tough going and were relegated despite Ben Butcher leading from the front with 47 league wickets. Disal Wijerathne gave support with 28 wickets and over 200 runs, but the batsman struggled as only Billy Crone showed any form with 323 league runs.

The Club’s 3rd XI finished comfortably in mid-table but hopes of an immediate return to the 1st XI Division 4 never really materialised as availability limited the chance of developing any kind of form. The ever-reliable Hadeligh Luff (369 runs) and Simon Martin (514 runs) led the batting honours, with skipper Dan Carter (34 wickets) and a young Fahik Huda (22 wickets) spearheading the attack.

The Club’s 2nd XI also failed to secure an immediate return to the 2nd XI Premier League. Despite being top for a large part of the season, the side suffered an unexplainable loss of confidence against sides towards the bottom of the table in August.

David Foster (727 runs) was the league’s leading run scorer, and he was well supported by Vic Kandampully (650 runs) and Richard Fleming (608 runs). The ever-green Rupert Staple (26 wickets) led the attack, and James Yandell who will lead the side in 2016, weighed in with 23 wickets but their efforts and a last day win over Bickley Park was not enough to dislodge from Folkestone from the final promotion spot.

Tanweer Sikandar again secured the Kent Premier League’s Leading Run Scorer Award with 714 runs at an average of 47.6. Support came in the form of Michael Thornely (341 runs) and a maturing Dipayan Paul (349 runs). Sikandar also bagged 28 wickets but Jahid Ahmed was back to his best after a disappointing 2014, with 29 wickets at an average of 15.52 which included a hatrick against eventual champions Hartley CC.

Despite never looking likely to drop out of the top 4, the Club’s 1st XI also never looked likely to threaten the leaders following 3 bad results in June when the side included Australian international Nic Maddinson and was arguably at its strongest.

Cup competitions proved the perfect distraction however and the Club were again Kent T20 Champions in 2015. Victories over Catford Wanderers, Holmesdale and Bromley paved the way to a washed-out Finals Day, and hastily rearranged matches brought a Semi-Final victory over Bexley and a Final defeat of Gore Court to take Blackheath into the Regional Stages.

A poor wicket at Wimbledon CC saw Blackheath defeat East Grinstead in a tight South of England Semi-Final thanks to 43 from Warren Lee, 38* from Michael Thornely and 3-18 for Jahid Ahmed. The Final saw Blackheath bow out to Wimbledon whose large total produced scoreboard pressure that saw the Club lose 5 wickets inside the first 8 overs.

The disappointment of exiting one National Cup strengthened Blackheath’s resolve in another. By this point, victories over Bromley Common, Hastings & St Leonard’s Priory, Preston Nomads, Bromley and Brentwood had taken the Club into the National Quarter Finals.

The Club edged out East Anglia’s Swardeston CC in a nail-biter at the Rectory Field. Michael Thornely’s 58 and Dipayan Paul’s 56 laid the foundations but it was the experience of James Hands (3-26) and Tom Mees (3-34) who saw the side home, Mees dismantling the number 11’s stumps with the first ball of the last over when only 10 were required for victory.

A full-house on a gloomy day at the Rectory Field welcomed a confident Bath CC for the semi-final. The returning Tanweer Sikandar (51) and Michael Thornely (75) expertly nullified the Bath attack, then upping the pace with a gem of a cameo from Duncan Willetts (33*) taking the Club to a very competitive 217-7 from their 45. The Somerset side never came to terms with the home attack as Sikandar (3-33), Jahid Ahmed (2-18), Tom Mees (2-26) and James Hands (2-20) tore them apart to secure a 95 run victory.

Although the Final splendour of Lord’s was replaced by Kent CCC’s County Ground at Beckenham, Blackheath were greeted by a good surface and a glorious late summer’s day in familiar south London surroundings. The Liverpool Competition’s Northern CC asked the Club to bowl first and they were soon in trouble as Warren Lee (3-23) provided an opening burst that would eventually secure him the Man of the Match Award. Like so many of the Club’s victims in 2015, Northern CC never came to terms with the quality of the Blackheath attack and their final total of 161-9 seemed way short.

Jahid Ahmed (32) gave the Blackheath innings impetus with his usual display of powerful hitting and alongside skipper Chris Willetts he put on 67 for the first wicket. Willetts’s (58*) industrious accumulation was occasionally punctuated by a flowing boundary and alongside Tanweer Sikandar, who made an elegant 52* off 48 balls, the pair saw the side home with 92 balls to spare to secure one of the most comprehensive victories in the competition’s 47 year history.

James Hands ended as the competition’s leading wicket taker with 22 wickets at an average of 5.7, and Chris Willetts lifted the trophy which meant Blackheath became National Champions for the first time since 1971. They remain one of only two Kent League teams to have become National Champions, and joined Teddington CC as the only London Clubs to have won the competition twice.

]]>Blackheath crowned National Championshttp://www.blackheathcc.com/2015/09/21/blackheath-crowned-national-champions/
Mon, 21 Sep 2015 07:04:55 +0000http://www.blackheathcc.com/?p=219
Blackheath’s victory over Northern of the Liverpool in the final of the Royal London Club Championship could hardly have been more comprehensive or more crushing.

With Southwark’s Shard in the distance and the Crystal Palace radio masts rather closer to the Beckenham ground, Chris Willetts’s team scaled heights of their own to carry off the most prestigious trophy in English club cricket, beating Northern by nine wickets with 92 balls to spare.

Having lost the toss and been invited to bowl first on a wicket retaining early moisture, the Kent Premier League’s side began in the best possible fashion when Stephen Lucas edged Warren Lee’s fifth ball of the day to Dipayan Paul at second slip.

In his next five overs Lee added the wickets of Liam Grey, also caught by Paul at slip, and Northern skipper James Cole, who gloved the seamer to Joe Kerridge behind the stumps. When Davy Smith was leg before for 13 when playing slightly across the line to Jahid Ahmed, Northern were 42 for four and their innings was close to being holed below the waterline.

What followed, however, was by far the best hour or so of the game for the Moor Park team as Jack Boardman and Ryan Maddock batted with good sense to put on 73 in 19 overs. Both batsmen seized more or less every opportunity to score but the introduction of the Blackheath spinners, notably the slow left-armer, James Hands, put a break on the run rate.

On the club ground most associated with the Kent and England slow-medium left-arm spinner Derek Underwood – members here buy their drinks at Deadly’s Bar – Hands varied his pace with particular skill and soon gained his rewards.

Boardman was stumped off the spinner for 28 and Ian Carroll was caught by Michael Thornely for two in the next over. Off-spinner Paul then had Stephen Cole pouched at mid-wicket, also for two, four overs later and Northern had suffered their second collapse on a day when they could barely afford one.

Maddock, however, completed a fine fifty and took his team from 131 for seven to 158 for eight before he perished for 58 in the final over of the innings. Paul Park helped Northern reach 161 for nine at the end of their allotted overs but no one was fooled that this total was anything less than 20 runs under par.

Hands finished with figures of 2-13 from his nine overs and they did him no less than justice.

Blackheath’s pursuit of their modest target could not have been more straightforward. Although Jahid Ahmed was caught by Boardman at mid on off Tom Sephton for 32 to end his opening stand of 67 in 14 overs with Willetts, everything else went Blackheath’s way as a previously tight Northern attack saved some of their loosest deliveries for the afternoon when it mattered most.

By the end of the 30th over, Northern’s players may have been anxious to get off the field while Blackheath’s were also keen to do so simply to open the champagne. Willetts made 58 not out off 97 balls and Tanweer Sikander an unbeaten 52 off a mere 48 balls.

“It ended up being reasonably comprehensive but our bowlers really set it up,” said Willetts. “I wasn’t too disappointed to lose the toss because I thought it would do a bit early on. I thought we gave them twenty or thirty runs more than we should have done. It’s very useful to have bowlers like James Hands in your back pocket when you know that he’s going to go for next to nothing.

“There’s only one or two players who remember us winning this in 1971 but it is nice to play at a club which has a tradition of doing well in these competitions.”

Indeed, this was Blackheath’s second victory in the national knockout and the third time a team from the Kent Premier League has won the trophy, Bromley having won it in 2007

Well done to Chris Willetts and the 1s for representing the Club so well.

Blackheath 217 – 7 from 45 overs

Bath 122 ao in 35 overs

Visitors Bath arrived at The Rectory for an extensive warm up with their coach load of spectators taking their seats in the stands ahead of a 12 noon start. Blackheath won the toss and decided to bat and set a total. In front of some 130 spectators the match started with a very lively over from Bath’s danger man lloyd Davies.

At 11-2 from 9 overs and Bath’s seamers making the most of the conditions it looked like it would be a difficult task to build a competitive total. Sikandar and Thornley played the perfect innings for the moment, taking the stink out of the attack, then gathering runs before powering 4s around the ground.

Sikandar batted 78 balls for his 51 before being caught on the long-on boundary. Thornley reached 75 off 108 balls before being caught trying to go over the top for another boundary. The 2 batters put on 100 runs and Blackheath on the front foot.

Classic run a ball innings from Paul [18], Willetts (D) [33] and Mahfuzul [10] bought the total to a competitive 217.

In reply Bath never really got settled against some highly disciplined Blackheath bowling, led by Sikandar who returned figures of 9 – 2 – 33 – 3. Bath were 19-2 from 7 overs but could not consolidate as Blackheath had done from an almost identical position.

As Ahmed switched on his radar, wickets fell at regular intervals, making it 38-3, 38-4, 40-5. With the heart of the batting removed, Bath’s Jenkins [43] and Padgett [21] added 50 runs before the partnership ended. No one could stay with Jenkins as the Blackheath bowlers finished off the visitors. The wickets were shared 2 a piece for Ahmed, Hands and Mees.

There are two key over riding impressions from this win.

The quality of the players Blackheath on the field was exceptional

The team work, patience, co-operation and reading of the situation needed to win the game was equally exceptional.

The final is against Northern CC, who beat Chester Le Street.

The game is on the 20th September. It is likely to be held at the Beckenham County Ground.

The 2s had an on – off game at Gravesend. Chasing 154 on a green top there were starts from Kandampully [40], Foster [26] and Ahmed (M) [54] but no-one could finish off, leaving us 11 runs short. Mathematically the 2s can still be promoted, but it will take a 20 point win and results to go our way. Fingers crossed that The Mote can beat Folkestone.

The 3s lost. Nothing to see, please move on.

The 4s lost. Ben Butchers 5 for 32 and Billy Crone’s 51 worth seeing.

The 5s were about to thrash Old Colfeians when the rain came

The 6s had a week off

The 7s had a close encounter with Milroy Cruze’s Blue Star. A 130 total in 40 overs was a fraction below par, but with accurate bowling from Tobin Samuel and Shanks the opposition just snuck over the line with 8 ball to spare. This weeks game against OD Cuaco is now a must win to avoid the drop.

Blackheath, in south-east London, played host to the closest finish as the home side took on East Anglian Premier League leaders Swardeston.

Batting first, captain Chris Willetts enjoyed a partnership of 79 with Michael Thornley for the hosts, and after the former was dismissed, Thornley put on fifty with Dipayan Paul to put the hosts on 162 for two.

Thornley was out for 58, but Paul hit 56 before becoming the first victim of Matthew Taylor, who finished with 3-35. A late flurry of wickets saw the innings close on 230 for nine.

The Swardeston reply started well as opening pair Peter Lambert and Jordan Taylor put on 55 before Lambert was out for a quick-fire 38.

Three more wickets followed as the visitors found themselves at 75 for four, and after James Hands had Richard Sims caught and bowled, they were struggling at 100 for five.

However, Jeremy Elliott and Matthew Taylor recovered the Swardeston innings with a stand of 98 before Elliott was bowled by Warren Lee for 51 from 49 balls.

With the partnership broken, Blackheath sensed their chance and Hands took the key wicket of Taylor for 56.

Thomas Mees then finished off the tail to dismiss Swardeston for 220 and secure a home semi-final tie.